Process of manufacturing heat-insulating brick



4 Patented Junev 2, 1925.

UNITED STATES RICHARD O. WILLIAMS, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

{PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING HEAT-INSULATIN G BRICK.

N W goriginal application filed J ly 2, 1923, Serial No. l49,160. Divided and this application filed February 7, 1925. Serial No. 7,706.

To allwlzom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD C. WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore city, State of Maryland, have I invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for ManufacturingHeat- Insulating Brick, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a process of manufacturin heat insulating brick, this application belng a division of my prior apl plication filed by me for a composition of matter for making insulating bricks on July 2, 1923, and bearing the serial number 649,160.

In the manufacture of heat insulating bricks one of the materials found best for this purpose is diatomaceous earth. Such material consists almost entirely of the silicious skeletons or frames of certain minute plants belonging to the confervoid algae.- These skeletal frames occur in large geologic deposits in a practically pure state and, being of nearly pure siilica, are of very refraotory character. The material is extremely light and porous as it consists of innumerable tubes having thin partitions and a extremely thin walls, flat wheels filled with microscopic poresand other specific forms all of which are filled with a multiplicity of minute poresor cells.

The propertiesessential in ideal material for heat and sound insulating bricks and the like products are that the finished product made from such material shall be of low specific gravity without having large pores; the material must have a high melting point; the material must, for commercial reasons, be cheap and plentiful; it must lend itself to" economical manufacturing into the required articles; it must be non-inflammable plasticity the manufacturmg processes employed in brlck making, such as pu'gging, the diatoms are so readily reduced to the colloidal state as to make the mass very diflicult, if not lmposslble to handle in many of the customary subsequent machine operations. Moreover, crushing of the diatoms destroys the pores and the colloidal or semi-colloidal fragments fill up the spaces between the arger particles or unbroken diatoms, thereby greatly increasing the specific gravity of the product and thus decreasin its efi'ectiveness as a-heat insulating me ium since it so largely depends. In fact, in.

is a well established fact that those sub stances which are resistant to the passage of heat are of low specific gravity and contain innumerable minute spaces.

Many schemes have been tried to take full advantage of the remarkable porosity of this material, and to conquer the inherent difficulties in manufacturing it into useful articles. Some have added various mineral cementing materials or materials that unite with the silica to form a cement, which not only increased the specific gravity, but also lowered greatly the fusion temperature. This renders their product expensive, less resistant to the passage of heat, and lowers the fusion point to a point lower than it is called upon oftentimes to withstand in practice. Others add a percentage of clayor finely ground (colloidal or semi-colloidal) diatomsto give the mass the necessary plastic'ity for manufacturing into various articles.- Naturally this increases the s ecific gravity, and hence lowers the insu ating value of the article. To compensate for the increased specific gravity some add finely divided combustible material, such as cork, sawdust and so forth, to make artificial even' at high temperatures; it must possess pores. Naturally a fusion is necessary, and

r slte tensile and compressive strength; an 't must be plastic.

Hiatomaceous earth is possessed of all these qualities in a high degree except the last 'two and by a proper process of manufacture the extremel fragile character of the diatoms ma be inhibited from exercising injurious e ects and, although pure diatomaceous earth is not in itself plastic, yet the diatoms maybe easily reduced to such minute articles as to enterreadily into the colloida or semi-colloidal state on which to avoid the requisite high temperature a flux is added, which has the disadvanta e of forming comparatively large pores in w ich, as before noted, radiant heat passes through readily and convection plays a large part. Also the melting point is lowered beyond the point they are oftentimes called upon to withstand-in, ractice.

' Consider a ox of matches. Suppose they were dumped out of the box, dropped in a pile and stirred so that the matches would lie in every direction. Manifestly they would occupy many times the voluinethey originally occupied in the box where they are orderly arranged in one direction. Also it is evident that in between the matches there are numbers of air spaces. Now it is also evident that if up to, perhaps, forty per cent of the matches should be broken'into percentage.

Consider the pile of matches again. If we should apply a heavy pressure (such as is commonly employed in brick-making) every match in it would be crushed. If, however, .we had filled up all the spaces in between the match sticks completely with. some incompressible material, naturally very heavy pressure would not injure the match sticks. The same thing applies with equal force to the tubes, round flat discs and other forms of diatoms. If these diatoms were loosely (that is, each diatom pointing in a different direction) placed unbroken and then the whole mass consolidated, this would form the lightest and,-.l1ence,'the most resistant material to the passage of heat that could be made out. of this material. Moreover, if each diatom was tied to the adjoining diatoms, even though loosely, this would make the strongest possible article that could be made considering theweight. This is precisely what my invention aims at and actually accomplishes in practice. For by the addition of carbonaceous, viscous, sticky material, each diatom is covered by a film of sticky material which has a cushionmg effect, and protects it from fracture in preliminary treatment (pugging and 'so forth) before it is ;put under heavy pressure to form the finalbrick. Here the spacesor voids in between the diatoms are partially filled with sticky, carbonaceous material,

and the remainin spaces and pores are completely filled wit water. This can not be done with water alone, for the percentage of water necessary to thoroughly protect the diatoms would leave the product so extremely soft that it would not hold its shape. Also the carbonaceousmate-rial gives to the mass the necessary plasticity and tenacity for shaping into brick and other. articles without the addition of anycolloids of another composition or by grinding a percentage of the diatoinaceous earth itselfinto colloids. Moreover,,it has been found that in practice the green brick is considerably stronger -with the carbonaceous material than without it, and much facilitates the manufacturing of them, and reduces the loss in burning. Also, in the drying process, at which time the water is removed, the shrinkage of the mass is considerably lessened by the addition of carbonaceous, sticky material, for it prevents the slipping of the diatoms freely over each other. Moreover, in the burnin process, as there is a defiiciency of oxygen iii the kiln at first, burning of the carbonaceous material takes lace slowly, and a coke is formed which iolds the diatoms firmly in' place until the sintcring temperature is-nearly reached, when the coke catches fire and rapidly raises the whole mass in all parts of the kiln to the sintering temperature. Without the carbonaceous material, not only must'the temperature be raised considerably higher in some parts of the kiln, but also the outside of each individual brick must be raised considerably higher than the inside initially. This is of considerable practical importance, and much facilitates the manufacture of the brick. v

Naturally the .more closely packed the diatoms are, the stronger the brick will be. This will, of course, diminish the insulating value of the brick. But under certain conditions this may. be desirable. By lessening the percenta e of umm material this can be accomplis ed. t has een found in practice for most uses that the proper percentage is twenty-five per. cent gummy or stlcky carbonaceous material, twenty-five per cent water, and fifty per cent diatomaceous earth.

In carrying out myprocess I employ as a typical composition,

Diatomaceous earth, by weight; carbonaceous binder, 25% by weight; water, 25% byweight.

, The carbonaceous binder'is in the form of such gummy or sticky material as molasses, gums, tars or other material of this char-. acter which will coke before ignition. These ingredients are thoroughly mixed in such manner that the diatoms are not comminuted and reduced to colloidal proportions.

The mass is then shaped in suitable molds to the required size and form of the bricks.

These formed brick are then exposed to 'heat in a suitable kiln. As the bricks are heated, the volatile matters are first evapo-' rated or distilled off and then the binder cokes and temporarily secures the individual diatoms in their positions in the mass. This coked binder, upon the heat in the kiln being kept up, now ignites and burns entirely out and, since there is a deficiency of oxygen in the kiln in the usual operation of such devices, the combustion is slow and the diatoms are not disturbed. tion of the coked binder reatly increases the heat in the brick and nally raises the temperature to such a degree that sintering of the diatoms and their adhesion to each other is effected. Thus, when the process is completed, the resultant product is a brick consisting entirely (except for negligible im- This combuscomminute'd state and sintered together.

" r standard 2 x4 xa',' brick weighin purities) or diatomsin their natural i111 the absence of 'comminuted diatoms, are

, highly soimd and heat resistant;

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, '1s:

1. Thatmethodv of manufacturing insulating refractory bricks and the like which consists in mixing together diatoma-' ceous earth, a combustible coking binder and water, the quantity of diatomaeeous earth being at least equal to the combined quantities of binder and water, molding the mixture, and exposing the molded mixture to a heat sufiicient to primaril drive on the" volatile matter, next to coke t e binder andv sintering of the silica.

'fi-nally to burn out the binderia nd efiect' 2. That method of manufacturing heat insulating refractory bricks and the like which consists of mixing together diatomac'e'ous earth, acarbonaceous coking binder and water in; the proportions of 50 r cent diatomaceo'us earth, 25percent bin er, and

then coke the binder and finally to burn out 25 per cent-of water, molding the mass and the binder and sinter' the earth-whereby to i produce a finished article consisting entirely of particles of diatomaceous earth 'sintered together. 1 F *In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

RicHARi 

